Congratulations to Terry and Kim Labonte whose daughter is engaged to be married. Kristy and her fiancé, Matt, will begin their life together in Texas. A wedding date has been set for April 26, 2008. Best of luck to them.

Congratulations to reporter Raygan Swan, who reunited with a previous beau from her native Indiana last year and recently became engaged. Raygan and Matt will be married on April 20. She has already returned to the Indianapolis area to begin wedding preparations and will carry out her duties for NASCAR.com from there.

Congratulations to former Dale Earnhardt Inc. driver Steve Park, who proposed to Jessica Skarpelezos on New Year's Eve after several years of dating.

Quoting Steve on this..."There is no party that could top this one. I am so happy to have Jessica by my side and even happier that she has agreed to be my wife. She's been with me through it all, and I am so blessed to have such a wonderful person in my life."

Wedding plans have not yet been detailed.

Congratulations also to Johnny Sauter and Cortney Owen, who were married on December 15.

Two of NASCAR's most notorious bachelors have quietly rekindled former
relationships since the end of the season. More of an update to follow if these old flames don't
get blown out by the time they roll off the grid in Daytona.

In the Market

David Stremme

+ + +

NEW YEAR, NEW SIGHTS

A fan spied Miss Emily Maynard and country crooner Jake Owen at the
Kentucky Wildcats game against the Florida State Seminoles on New
Years' Eve in Nashville.

Miss Erica Dewey was spotted out on the town New Year's Eve with her new beau, former Crew Chief Lance McGrew.

+ + +

THE NASCAROLINA RUMOR MILL

Q. Are Michael and Buffy Waltrip getting divorced?A. That rumor has a life of its own and has lived longer than this website. To date TGOM has found no evidence that either party has taken any action towards the legal dissolution of their marriage. It is confirmed, however, that the couple is currently maintaining separate residences.

+ + +

THE MOST FAQs

Q. Is Kasey Kahne still seeing the girl from his Bahamas trip?A. Yep.

Q. Is it serious?A. Serious enough that she can now be safely referred to as the girlfriend.

Q. What can you tell us about her?A. Kasey's new girlfriend is
Ohio native Jenny Severance. She is a 32-year-old single mother who
currently works and resides in NASCARolina. The two began dating in the
early fall of last year.

+ + +

SUPER SPONSOR SHOUTOUT

Bright Star Light Products, a unit of Koehler-Bright Star, Inc. that
was recently purchased by Berkshire-Hathaway, Inc., has come to the aid
of a United States Army Battalion now based in Kirkuk, Iraq as a favor
to a Key Motorsports team member.

Jeff
O’Farrell, a computer specialist, welder, electrician and race day gas
catch can man for the Key Motorsports NASCAR Craftsman Truck and
Nationwide Series racing organization based in Mooresville, NC,
recently contacted Bright Star Light Products to see if the company
could help out his son Brody’s 10th Mountain Division unit.

Brody’s
Alpha Company, 2nd Battalion, 1st Brigade of the 22nd Infantry Regiment
is part of a 1,000-man squad located in this northern Iraqi province
where Jeff said “was based in a tent city with no outside protective
barrier to speak of.”

“Brody said that they are handicapped
by the lack of sufficient light when they are on patrol in motorized
vehicles at night, so he asked if we had a sponsor that could help,”
the elder O’Farrell explained.

Though Key Motorsports did not
boast of a sponsor that was into the lighting business, telephone calls
made by the race team’s sales staff produced Bright Star. Subsequent
telephone calls and discussions to the Hanover Township,
Pennsylvania-based company produced some interest, and in just a couple
of weeks after discussions began Bright Star shipped the lights to
Brody’s outfit. “It should make a whale of a difference for them,”
O’Farrell said.

“Bright Star is known in the lighting industry
to produce what is regarded as the ‘Safest Flashlight’”, said the
company’s National Sales Manager Shannon Sink. “There is a
certification process that has to be undertaken in order for any light
product to be certified for use in a particular situation such as
mining and military use, so when the problem these soldiers were having
was explained to us, we pretty much knew that it had to be our new
Lighthawk units with lithium iron battery technology that were needed
here,” Sink added.

Bright Star lights are predominantly hand
held versions, so the soldiers in O’Farrell’s unit had to devise a
method to attach the lights to their vehicles to achieve their
objectives. “We’re pretty happy as to how the folks at Bright Star
reacted to our plea and how quickly they sent the lights. It will
certainly help our son and the others in the Battalion as they serve
out their tour,” O’Farrell added.

Sink explained that Bright
Star has sold lighting to the military before, so this kind of
application was something they felt they could satisfy. “The key is
providing something that will keep the soldiers safe, and we take a lot
of pride knowing that we have the technology and the products to
satisfy this particular situation. So when the call came to help we
jumped at the chance,” Sink ended.

Sgt. O’Farrell, 27, is in
his sixth year with the Army and is serving in his third tour of duty
in the Middle East and second in Iraq. He first served in Afghanistan
for nine months and then a year in Iraq before returning home in
September 2006. He re-enlisted for another 4 to 6-year term upon his
most recent deployment that began in September.

+ + +

Alienating the affection of this...

Which NASCAR driver is rumored to have a civil lawsuit being brought
against him by a scorned man whose wife got screwed? Story goes like this ... Man and wife excited to meet their favorite driver ... driver more excited about meeting wife ... driver helps himself to wife ... couple gets divorced ... husband sues. Ex-wife moves on to a competitor's team manager. No word on how the driver's girlfriend feels about the whole situation.

Note to readers:Feel free to leave your guesses in the comments, but the tallglassofmilk won't confirm, so don't bother inquiring about this... Keep the comments short and sweet. Unwarranted personal attacks on the subjects of
this site and your fellow readers will not be tolerated.

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